Ming-Ch'ing Studies in Japan: 1981

77 Ming-Ch'ing Studies ¡? Japan: 1 98 1 Asai Motoi /^jr\f?X¿ » Shigaku zassh! ^ffèiÌ.S'-S (M^Y 1982), 212-19. Translated by Joshua Fogel , Harvard University THE GENTRY An understanding of the composition and the historical roles played by the strata known as hsiang-shen wP ?? , shen-chin *.?4'? > and shen-shih £? "I [all translated as "gentry" in Engl ishj in the political, economic, and cultural arenas during the Ming-Ch'ing period has become one of the central topics for research in recent years. A large number of essays published last year dealt with this issue. The main direction of these essays has been the attempt to stipulate more strictly on an empirical basis the concepts of hs iang-shen , s hen -chi ? , and shen-shih that have so far been used differently by scholars, and to build the foundation for future research. Yamane Yukio 's Ü-| ^uOfA"0^ 's rePresentat îve 0^ this trend, (n his two articles cited below, Yamane limits the use of the term hsiáng-shen to retired officials of the seventh grade or higher and those who have passed the chin-shin 'vjì *T degree and were residing in their native area. He refers to retired officials below the seventh grade, chtl-jen Tg* L^ , kung-sheng "jf ^ , sheng-yUan ^_fg , and chien-sheng B¡¿ 1Jj- ,all as shih -? . The term he uses to designate both groups collectively is, appropriately, shen-shih. He points out in particular the need to pay attention to the differences between shen $1 (°r hs iang-shen) and shih. One essay that analyzes the shih class from institutional as well as practical aspects is Oh Keum-sung's ?; ^_n¡¡, "The Formation of the Shen-shih Class in the Ming Period" flß/ftjf^^/g^M/^.'¡^7^S-|Z ^) ? ? t (Mindai shi kenkyü (3jÊ}\V¿?^t*íu 9> trans,ated Lfrom the KoreanJ by Yamane Yukio and Inada Hideko 7f-|g WJ^-y" )¦ This latter half of a two-part essay discusses the sheng-yllan and chien-sheng from the midMing on. The number of sh.eng-yUan gradually grew from about 30,000 in the early Ming to over 500,000 by the late Ming. As a consequence, the great majority of them had scarcely any possibility of rising to a bureaucratic post. Similarly, in the early Ming chien-sheng had a chance of receiving a position, but with the mid-15th century enactment of regulations on chien-sheng , their number increased tremendously until it was virtually impossible to gain office with chien-sheng status alone. From the mid-Ming on, shih (men with chU-jen , sheng-yllan , and chien-sheng degrees who had not yet assumed a post) began to form a more identifiable group distinct from shen. At the same time, the two groups formed a unit, shen-shih , clearly distinct from the general populace, and they expressed themselves in the political and social arenas. In this connection, Wada Masahiro irj ^J^ has written "A Study of the Use of the Expression Hs iang-shen in the Late Ming and Early Ch'ing" %*%&* and county (y. . Shen referred in a narrow sense to those who 79 had held bureaucratic office, and in a wider sense it came to include chU-jen in the Ch'ung-chen reign at the end of the Ming, kung-sheng and chien-sheng in the early Ch1 1 ng, and sheng-yllan in the late Ch'ing. Wada has also written "A Study of Shen-shih Status from the Late Ming and Early Ch'ing Onward" 9^%)%^^ i sí ^P&Sfa?Jfr ? > introduces two historical sources held in the Peking Library in his discussion of shih riots at the end of the Ming. There existed locally at that time "gentry assemblies" ^ gì- made up of hsiang-shen , chU-jen , and shengyUan ; and from time to time they led movements against local officials. Fuma argues: that these assemblies were opened to the general public as well. The problem is what happened to these local "gentry assemblies" in the Ch'ing. Matsumoto Yoshiro's ^i\/f 5^P eS5aY> "The Opening of Sand Flats in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung in the...